North Wales 7th-9th March 2014

The second proper Snowdonia meet of the year set off to an unknown but swag looking hut. After a minor clusterfuck from Jack in giving me directions to the supermarket en route, the drive passed pretty much without incident. The return of CJ was greatly appreciated by James, who topped out 100mph on several occasions, although the lack of an AUX input was less appreciated by the other members of the bus, who proceeded to complain hard about my chillout CD (talking to you Amy…) Having arrived at the hut to find some friendly walkers and fell runners from the Gwydyr Club, we turned in reasonably early ready for an early start the next day, which promised to be dry.

The alarm at 7 was appreciated by almost no one but with some minor persuasive tactics, such as dragging Katie off the mattress, everyone was up and at it reasonably quick. A flying breakfast was eaten before we piled into the van and headed off to Holyhead Mountain on Anglesey. I was psyched having not been there since Christmas Meet in first year, and after a long and windy drive we found the car park without incident, avoiding going the wrong way up the one way system a la Chris Redding! However, my route finding from the car park to the crag left a lot to be desired, necessitating the first of a fair few apologies from me over the course of the weekend. After a 20 minute gorse and heather scramble we reached the well travelled path that Jack had been walking towards when I called him back- it hurts me to say he was right…

Look at the view!

The crag looked mega, with big 30m routes and a few multipitches dotted about. We set up camp under the butch HVS King Bee Crack and people split off into groups to do battle with the howling wind and cold fingers. I am writing this blog very late and as such have no recollection of what people climbed apart from what follows! Jack and Josh headed off to do a Severe arête/groove system called Teenage Kicks, while Peate led a Severe entitled Stairs which had a tasty overhang. Katie and Sam seconded, with Katie getting the rope stuck and necessitating an interesting little solo to free it on massive holds. Over the way, James and Charlie were on Pigeon Hole Crack Severe 4a, Callum bailed off his route due to the excessive wind and Emily led the HS Candlestick with James T. Amy and Ellie also led a route I am unable to remember. While all this was going on I had stupidly and somewhat arrogantly decided to warm up on the low end E1 slab Breaking the Barrier with the two Steves. This was a bad call as the conditions were dreadful and my technique was shocking. After nearly blowing it several times on the unprotected start and finally fiddling some reasonable gear in I started to feel better and finished it up without too many problems- good route. Setting up the belay was interesting with communication with the seconds downright impossible but we got there in the end. Both Steve’s seconded well with a fall or two, good effort on 5b moves as a warmup- sorry guys! Steve Howie in particular can proudly say his first outdoor climb was an E1!

 

 

The grump factor was rising on the crag as the wind picked up, but at least the sun was coming out. James M in particular was feeling the strain, to the extent that no photos exist of the day from him- a rarity! Charlie was psyched, however and started up what she thought was an HS called Birthday Passage- this was in fact a VS so cracking effort! Steve got on the sending train too, dispatching his Severe with ease and then ticking off the VS for a classic ego tick! Callum also led the Severe entitled New Boots and Panties I think, before Bethan had a pop and bailed due to painful knee. James T was also leading the VS Cursing- a well named route because the rope drag looked horrendous. Next door, Josh was having one of those days and bailed out of his HS, leaving Jack free to try the pumpy looking E2 Bran Flake. This didn’t go entirely to plan; the start was assumed to be piss but was in fact quite hard, and Jack couldn’t get his nut out after falling off so we left it in situ for a later abseil. I also attempted a route above my station on Sai Dancing E3 6a, a horribly bold start on finger jugs that definitely went into the deckout zone giving way to a ledgey crack, a bomber peg and an absolutely hideous swing right which despite big gurning I was unable to do- whippy whippy! One more attempt and a stuck cam later, I lowered off the peg and Jack and I set off to set up a windy and blind abseil. 

Mid whip on Sai Dancing

 

By this point the sun was out and Ellie and Amy were making the most of it, with Ellie dispatching a cracking VS Tension and the pair of them a 2 pitch VS I can’t remember the name of. Jack and I’s abseil took forever but was eventually successful, before Jack geared up for Breaking the Barrier and made it look like piss- finally back on the E train! I was now fucked and the weather was closing in so we reassembled under the crack to pack up. Despite the hideous wind everyone appeared to have a good day, with Steve H getting a nice first lead in (I think) late in the day and everyone enjoying being away from the grit! 

Jack powering up Breaking the Barrier

Ellie on either Tension or Andover

After a bit of mincing we walked back to the car park via the actual footpath where I test drove Jack’s awful car and eventually we got back to the hut. Drinking disgracefulness failed to materialise with perhaps the funniest part of the evening coming when one of the fell runners called his ‘friend’ a ‘mongoloid fuck’ for misplacing his charger. After a few bevvies and experiencing the awesome shower, everyone was in bed ready for a day of either slate or Little Tryfan.

Sunday dawned far too soon but we packed up the hut remarkably quickly and got going after a masterful piece of reversing from James. First stop was the Ogwen Valley where the Little Tryan group was deposited. Peate takes over:

Myself, James and Amy led a small team of more adventurous (or lazier) climbers to do some relaxed multi-pitching on the slabs of Little Tryfan. With a number of people hoping to be on committee next year, and my personal desire to do some epic multi-pitching in the summer, some practice with rope work was in order. After being dumped at the far end of the layby by the considerate bitch sec candidate driving the bus, we tramped through the field underneath Tryfan, to Little Tryfan. We quickly divided into 3 groups, racked up and raced to be the first to the top. With an 'I'll make it up as I go along' mentality, Callum belayed me up the first pitch of a HVD and stood patiently as I attempted to devise an anchor. From this point I could look out to see the girls team huddled on their first belay with a tidy coil of ropes, and behind them Josh leading off up the second pitch of the slab with James muttering profanities as he made a mess of his ropes. Taking time to appreciate the sun rising through the valley and the clouds clearing, myself and Callum hurried down to get some food so that he could lead. Once he was set up at the half way point I tentatively made my way up to him as just the day before he had needed reminding of how to put together a top set up. I had laughed too soon as I messed up in the same fashion as James, by initially dropping my belay plate down the crag, then proceeding to make a complete mess of the ropes, which caused certain issues for Callum. As I had borrowed Callum's belay plate, James soloed up a tasty one star Diff to give Callum one.

 

 

 

 

After lunch Amy gave a thorough lesson in how to set up a belay so that Katie and Bethan could give it a go. Leading the line that Callum had just done Katie cruised up to the belay, with plenty of unhelpful comments from myself, James and Callum about where to set it up. Between climbs I decided to quickly ascend the mod which was running next to the climb Steve was on. Once level with him it became apparent that he was in a spot of bother, as on the easy climbing he had climbed well above his last placement and off route, at which point he had begun quietly jibbing out. I called for James' assistance, who asked to borrow someone's abseil rope before they dismantled it, all the while Steve's leg was cramping up. I made more unhelpful comments about a way to traverse back on to the route which he eventually got so fed up with he just bunged in a bit of a psycho cam, and easily swung over back on route, albeit a tad shook up.

 

 

Finally it was my turn to give the HS eliminate a go to make up for my absence of climbing the previous day, which ended up with me stupidly taking the wrong (too easy) line, and then complacently moving well past the belay point some way above gear, at which point I did not particularly want to reverse the line. During my time contemplating whether to down climb or traverse onto the diff next door, I had to listen to the smart comments of one chap at the bottom who informed me that the route was a bit run out, and that I should continue climbing, clearly failing to understand the logistics of climbing a 55m route, using a 50m rope in one pitch. I made the traverse, quickly setting up a belay to allow Callum to swing past me to finish off the day. At the same time James demonstrated some quite immense run outs whilst being belayed by Josh. We were greeted at the bottom by the girls and Steve cosying up on the boulder mat and Bethan helping herself to Callum's flapjack, with a mess of racks and doubles spread out around them. With much moaning from myself and James, and an onslaught of sarcasm when Callum inquired as to where I got my IKEA bag from, we tidied up and hurried back down to the van. (We did actually do some climbing).​​

Having done this, the remainder of us hightailed it in the drizzle over to Llanberis, where we parked up and started up the depressingly long and steep zigzag approach path. Eventually flat ground was reached and we started descending towards the Rainbow Slab. The directions were confusing and navigation took a while- I fell in the stream and Charlie went full damsel in distress and refused to cross it without help from several men :p Eventually I found the right level and we started walking across the area, passing the hulking Colossus Wall and the beautiful Rainbow Slab. I kept stopping and loudly pointing out how nice the slate was to the amusement of others, but eventually the Plateau Slab was reached and everyone got on it, apart from James who admirably commenced working at the crag. 

Plateau Slab- Charlie on the arete, Jack on Slate Ninja

Now theres a good looking bit of rock

Fair play to this man

I took the first whipper of the day on the first route of the day, Slate Ninja 6a, before topping that and the nearby 5b out. Entertainment was mainly provided by calling Jack a mongoloid fuck, but the routes were great and actually quite long for low grade slate, and everyone got stuck in- Steve impressively led a 6a first up while Ellie and Emily set about ticking the crag, starting with Carpe Diam 5b (this is the right spelling of the route!). Sam and Charlie dispatched the 4c arête before Charlie and Steve led the slightly loose corner and Sam started working Slate Ninja. Meanwhile, Jack and I continued warming up for some trad by onsighting the 6b, which Ellie also later did- good effort everyone.

Sam on Slate Ninja

 I was now officially psyched and Jack and I headed off to Colossus area to do the classic E1 Bella Lugosi is Dead. The massive pool of water around the wall made the first moves wet and hard, but Jack going first got through them, dried his feet and dispatched the route without too many problems, even placing an RP1! Charlie and James arrived to take photos/mince as Jack was halfway up, before he abbed off and stripped the route on the convenient bolt belay so I could have a pop. I too placed an RP1 and a small red peanut before clipping the in situ cam and topping out- lovely route and very steady at E1. While I was racked up I got on the 6a+ arête of Horse Latitudes, with the hardest move being a tricky step round the hanging arête on quartz crimps, which Jack also dispatched. Ellie arrived and got psyched, giving the route a cracking effort before falling on the last few moves and abbing off the top. Everyone was in full mince mode now with the sun out, with Sam and Steve having joined us from their ticking expedition over at Plateau, and with Jack’s E point in the bag he wasn’t overly psyched for the uphill slog to find the classic E2 corner German Schoolgirl. This just left me to get on another classic E2, Pull My Daisy on the Rainbow, which I started racking up for as James sprinted to the top of the crag to ab down for photos and everyone else minced/observed on the other side of the hole.

Jack looking heroic on Bella Lugosi

Ellie making the delicate step through on Horse Latitudes

 James failed to reappear and I started getting twitchy with nerves before deciding just to get on the route. The first half had bomber gear and steadyish climbing, with one hard pull just below the infamous pipe. I chilled out at the halfheight ledge for a while before taking a deep breath and setting off on the massive runout to the top. I slipped out of the bubble only briefly while trying to place a shit RP but kept it together on the easy climbing and topped out, thankfully avoiding a monumental 30m whipper onto the pipe (it has held them apparently). The sun was going down so Ellie seconded smartly, stopping only to bollock me for not belaying properly, before we all packed up and found a much easier way out of the area than the way the guidebook suggested. Cracking day basically, one of the best I’ve had all year. Wales gave us good weather again- its not always raining clearly! Massive thanks to James and Charlie for some mega photos :)  Psyched to go back- see you in the Peak!

Nomnomnom

The 'thank fuck for that' face upon reaching the jug

Ellie seconding Pull My Daisy